Stabilizing method and apparatus for a submersible tow

ABSTRACT

A stabilizing and control system for a submersible barge which has an elongated rigid hull is accomplished by mounting a vertical tube through the hull so that the axis of the tube falls along the vertical bisecting plane of the hull. An impeller is mounted within the tube so that it will create a thrust along the axis of the tube in either direction. A control apparatus is provided which can vary the direction and power applied to the impeller. An apparatus is also included to power the control apparatus and the impeller. Subsidiary equipment, such as position equipment and depth equipment, can be included and coupled to the control apparatus.

United States Patent [191 Miller STABILIZING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A SUBMERSIBLE TOW William J. Miller, Ponca City, Okla.

Continental Oil Company, Ponca City, Okla.

Aug. 9, 1971 Inventor:

[73] Assignee:

Filed:

Appl. No.:

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1908 l/l96l ll/1970 11/1968 3/1972 Apr. 30, 1974 8/1972 Smith Vacquier 1 14/16 R X ABSTRACT A stabilizing and control system for a submersible barge which has an elongated rigid hull is accomplished by mounting a vertical tube through the hull so that the axis of the tube falls along the vertical bisecting plane of the hull. An impeller is mounted within the tube so that it will create a thrust along the axis of the tube in either direction. A control apparatus is provided which can vary the direction and power applied to the impeller. An apparatus is also included to power the control apparatus and the impeller. Subsidiary equipment, such as position equipment and depth equipment, can be included and coupled to the control apparatus.

1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures LEVEL DETECTOR SERVO AMP Q19 \DEPTH SENSOR STABILIZING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A SUBMERSIBLE TOW PRIOR ART Control of a submersible barge has generally comprised movable fins at the fore and aft positions on the barge hull which are controlled either remotely by sending information down the cable or by automatic equipment on the barge itself. A subsequent scheme described in Pat. No. 3,368,515 issued to Michimasa Endo entitled Submersible Barge describes a control system which consists of letting out or pulling in the tow cable so that the vertical force component at the nose of the barge will vary, thereby affecting a change on a fixed forward fin. A change in the force will cause the barge to dive or surface depending upon the magnitude of the force.

Pat. Nos. 3,176,648 and 896,361 disclose means for propelling a submarine using jets of fluid or vertical propellers, respectively; however, neither of these systems taught a method of controlling a submersible barge when same was moving at very slow speeds and wherein the normal control surfaces were insufficient to control the attitude of the barge.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION This invention discloses a method for generating a large horizontal force in a submersible barge so that a change in direction can be effected by the barge when necessary. It is not contemplated that the system will be used on a continuous basis, since other more suitable means can be used to effect a permanent change in depth, for example, extending or pulling in the tow rope. Under certain conditions, for example, when the depth of the water is very critical, the bottom is very rough, or the surface is covered with irregular chunks of ice, it becomes necessary to have precise control over the depth of the controlled barge so that no damage will result to the hull caused by striking ice or other submerged obstacles. The vertical thrusters or impellers can be operated either from surface equipment on the tow boat or by automatic equipment mounted in the barge so that for a period of time the barge can be maintained at a precise depth by operating the thrusters to force water up the vertical tube or down the vertical tube thus creating a downward or upward force component, respectively, on the hull of the barge. In case the barge should be required to surface, for example, under ice, the forward thruster can be energized causing the bow of the barge to sink thus enhancing the forward movement of the barge and reducing possible collision with the under surface of the ice. The forward fin can also be momentarily accuated to assist in causing the barge to dive.

These and other features of this invention are fully described in the specification and figures wherein:

FIG. I is a cross-sectional side view of a submersible barge showing the thrusters or impellers in operation;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view of a submersible barge having a single vertical thruster and operational forward fin which when combined will improve the diving characteristics of the barge when the initial forward movement of the barge creates relatively little force against the fins; and

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a thruster taken through the lines 33 of FIGS. 1 and 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to all of the drawings but in particular to FIG. 1, a submersible barge hull 10 has mounted thereon a set of rigid fins 16 mounted at the stern and a set of movable fins 17 mounted at the bow. Contained within the hull of said barge are vertical tubes 11a and 11b. Mounted in said vertical tubes are thrusters 12a and 12b, respectively. One form of thruster is described in a patent to F. W. Pleugar, Pat. No. 3,127,865. The control system for the thrusters essentially comprises power source 8 from the towed ship, not shown, and attached to a tow rope 9 connected to servo amplifier 13, depth sensor 14, and level detector 15. The level detector is connected through wire 18 to the servo amplifier, and the depth sensor is connected through wire 19 to servo amplifier 13.

Referring to FIG. 3, tube 11 having mounted therein the thruster 12 may also contain vanes 21a and 21b mounted at the top or bottom of tube 11, respectively. An attitude detector 20 is coupled to vanes 21a and 21b.

OPERATION Prior art submersibles have principally been controlled by movement of the horizontal and vertical fins of the barge, either remotely or by automatic equipment within the barge. The barge disclosed in this application is likewise controlled by proper setting of the horizontal and vertical fins, and these fins can also be controlled either remotely or within the barge as disclosed within the prior art. Other prior art submersibles as previously mentioned were controlled by letting out or pulling in the tow rope attached to the bow of the submersible. This system can likewise be incorporated along with the aforementioned control system in an effort to control the depth of the submersible; however, control fins are effective only when they develop enough force to urge the submersible in the desired direction. If, for example, tons of force is necessary to effect a correction and the fin is only generating 25 to 30 tons of force because the submersible is not moving rapidly enough for the water to effect the additional force necessary, the barge is no longer controllable and will either sink or rise to the surface, depending upon the direction the corrective force must be applied. If the barge is sinking, emergency systems will deballast the hull and cause the barge to rise rapidly to the surface. The barge may be safely on the surface; however, in its deballast condition it can no longer be towed under water and will thus become a hazard to navigation. If the barge is coming to the surface, little damage will ensue unless the tow ship or some other object is in the near vicinity at the point of surfacing of the barge. Furthermore, if a heavy layer of ice or an ice ridge is in front of the barge, it may be extremely undesirable to have the barge surface at that particular time.

This invention discloses a dynamic control system for a submersible that is capable of maintaining a barge under abnormal conditions from surfacing or sinking so as to create a hazard or peril to navigation or the barge, respectively.

The above is particularly true if the barge has an extremely high dead-weight tonnage, for example, 250,000 deadweight tons. Forces created by the vanes when a barge of this weight is moving less than a few knots per hour is nearly insignificant and will have little or no effect on the overall control of the barge attitude.

Barge hull (see FIG. 1) contains a dynamic control system which consists of impellers 12a and 12b. These impellers which can create 6,000 to 10,000 horsepower can, for short periods of time, effectively control the position of a submersible. If, for example, the barge begins to drift upwardly toward the surface, depth detector 14 will transmit a signal to servo amplifier 13, causing impellers 12a and 12b to create a force in the direction of arrow 40. The force thus created against the mounting of impeller 12a or 12b will cause a downward movement of barge hull 10. If impeller 12b should create more force on the bow section than 12a does on the stem, the bow of barge 10 will commence to sink faster than the stern. Under these conditions level detector 15 will transmit a signal through wire 18 to the servo detector 13 controlling impeller 12b which will reduce the output of impeller 12b or stop it entirely for a period of time necessary to level the barge.

If the barge begins to roll, vanes 21a or 21b (see FIG. 3) can be rotated to create a side thrust on the top or the bottom of the barge. The side thrust will be in a direction to counteract with any roll being detected by attitute detector 20. While normally fins 16 and 17 will tend to counteract any roll when the barge is moving rapidly through the water, for example 16 knots, these fins will have little effect in preventing roll when the barge is moving at an extremely slow rate.

Referring to FIG. 2, on some occasions barge 10 may be required to surface under ice. If the barge is not heavy enough to crush the ice, then it will rest against the underside of the ice sheet. When forward movement of the barge is commenced, small ice ridges may tend to damage the hull of the barge or the abrasive nature of the ice itself may tend to cause damage to the stern fins 16 or upper hull of the barge. It is, therefore, extremely desirable to get the barge submersed as quickly as possible. Two things can accomplish quick submersion. First, control fin 17 can be temporarily raised to an up position by an electrically operated hydraulic or mechanical lifter 30. Second, forward thruster 12b can be operated to create an upward movement of water in the direction of arrow 40 which will tend to force the bow of the barge downwardly. Any force applied to the barge through tow rope 9 will create a much greater force against fin 17 when it is in the up position than it would under normal running conditions. Once the submersible has dived deep enough to clear the ice, the thruster 12b can be deenergized and fin 17 returned to its normal operating position.

it is obvious, of course, that the system can be operated basically by means of a storage battery 41 which is continually charged through power source 8. It will normally be impractical to develop sufficient power for full operation of the thrusters through any reasonably sized power cable from the tow; therefore, sufficient power must be stored in the barge to operate the thrusters for a period of time. It is, however, quite possible to charge the battery over an extended period of time when the barge is being towed under normal condi tions.

Other methods utilizing the teachings of this invention are obvious in view of the specification and drawings, and it is contemplated that these will likewise be covered by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A stabilizing and control apparatus for a submersible barge having an elongated hull and a tow rope connected to said submersible barge for pulling said barge comprising:

a. a first vertical tube mounted in the fore portion of said hull and a second vertical tube mounted in the stern portion of said hull such that the. vertical axes of said first and second tubes fall on the vertical plane passing through the center line of said hull;

b. the first and second impeller means mounted inside said first and second tube, respectively, so that the thrust of said first and second impellers is along the axes of said first and second tubes;

c. level detector means disposed centrally in said hull to generate a first control output, and first and second depth sensor means disposed forward and rearward in said hull, respectively, to generate second and third control outputs respectively; and

d. first and second servo-amplifier means, said first servo amplifier means receiving control voltage input from said level detector means and first depth sensor means to provide energization to said first impeller means, and said second servo-amplifier means receiving control voltage input from said level detector means and said second depth sensor means to provide energizing output to said second impeller means; and

e. power source means connected to each of said first and second servo-amplifier means whereby a variation in attitude of said submersible barge will actuate said level detector means and respective ones of said depth sensor means to energize said first and second impeller means to maintain said submersible barge at a preselected depth and attitude. 

1. A stabilizing and control apparatus for a submersible barge having an elongated hull and a tow rope connected to said submersible barge for pulling said barge comprising: a. a first vertical tube mounted in the fore portion of said hull and a second vertical tube mounted in the stern portion of said hull such that the vertical axes of said first and sEcond tubes fall on the vertical plane passing through the center line of said hull; b. the first and second impeller means mounted inside said first and second tube, respectively, so that the thrust of said first and second impellers is along the axes of said first and second tubes; c. level detector means disposed centrally in said hull to generate a first control output, and first and second depth sensor means disposed forward and rearward in said hull, respectively, to generate second and third control outputs respectively; and d. first and second servo-amplifier means, said first servo amplifier means receiving control voltage input from said level detector means and first depth sensor means to provide energization to said first impeller means, and said second servo-amplifier means receiving control voltage input from said level detector means and said second depth sensor means to provide energizing output to said second impeller means; and e. power source means connected to each of said first and second servo-amplifier means whereby a variation in attitude of said submersible barge will actuate said level detector means and respective ones of said depth sensor means to energize said first and second impeller means to maintain said submersible barge at a preselected depth and attitude. 